Claire's Kitchen at le Salon — Restaurant in Sydney

There’s a collective intake of breath in the intimate dining room when everyone opens their menus. Fanning out like piano accordions, each menu’s glowing white light captures guests’ faces in a state of childlike wonder as they scratch their heads and wonder what it is they’re meant to eat. Eat the pages of the menu? It’s rather absurd, but then so is the nonsensical and satirical movement Le Salon DadA is based upon.

Being familiar with Marc Kuzma’s work at El'Circo at Slide, I entered Claire’s Kitchen at Le Salon with a fair idea of what to expect. In this setting Kuzma (who is also known as Claire de Lune) has kicked things up to the next level using a City of Sydney night-time diversification grant. These monies are all about local council trying to restore some of Sydney’s faded night-time glory, decimated by Gladys Berejiklian’s lockout laws.

Kuzma’s resulting night, (which will set you back $140/head) is based upon Cabaret Voltaire, a Swiss enclave of artists escaping the First World War. DadA was anti-establishment, anti-reason and anti-logic. DadA was the antidote to the bourgeois capitalist interests that the artists believed had led people into war in the first place. Following this line, our first course takes curative form as a wartime first aid kid with tongue depressor, bandages and a petri dish containing a smooth French mushroom parfait topped with sauternes jelly. Scraped onto crackers, it’ll sustain you through your cocktail construction – the recipe and ingredients are in your bucket.

With shiso leaf-infused vodka, nettle liqueur and pomegranate cordial, it’s a tangy, slightly more sophisticated Cosmopolitan with little blasts of sweetness when the pearls of passionfruit and lime pop on your tongue. The rest of your boozing is done in the usual fashion, with many wines - including the 2017 Cave de Turckheim Pinot Blanc ($70/bottle) we selected - available by glass, carafe and full bottle.

The fresh, dry white wine proves easy to enjoy through some on-stage art that sees a semi-nude model enhanced with the f-holes from a cello, and some at-the-table card tricks. It’s a multimedia affair, with German expressionist film, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920), playing on screens placed throughout the dining room. Seen through the eyes of an asylum patient, the film may leave you wondering what’s real and what’s not.

Contortionist Jade Twist continues our surrealist descent by wearing a black zentai suit with eyes and lips in all the wrong places. Tying herself in knots until she looks like a human pretzel, Twist makes it hard to know which way is up, and which direction way is forward. It's a perfect segue to a course based upon The Persistence of Memory (1931), arguably Salvador Dali’s most famous surrealist work. From the edge of a martini glass, his melting pocket watch drips in cracker form to accompany a well-spiced cold capsicum and tomato soup. Your soup is poured from a vessel that is itself a nod to Dali’s 1972 piece, Marilyn Monroe, shown up on the screens.

It’s this attention to detail that makes Kuzma’s night so intellectually rich for art-lovers, with clever details like Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel (1913) in the stairwell on the way up to the dining room. Even the table setting is done in the style of DadA, down to a DadA print cloth serviette. Without wanting to give it all away, the next course – the only hot course - a rainbow trout roulade, is a nod to Joan Miró. Everything on the splattered abstract plate is edible, down to the crisp fish bones. On the stage, the inimitable Shauna Jensen is clad in a thematic ‘singing fish’ (one of Miro’s recurring motifs) kaftan, as she belts out Ella Jenkins' Wade in the Water.

Jensen returns later in the evening with This Is Me from The Greatest Showman. It's guaranteed to leave you uplifted – from her talented lips the power ballad’s lyrics sound inspirational rather than twee. Le Salon DadA is a rich and punny, multimedia experience that will appeal to all of...

We reserved a table here for my wife’s surprise birthday party for 4 and they didn’t disappoint. The dining room was bright and elegant and the staff were very welcoming and professional across the board.

The only option that evening was a set menu (with options on all courses) for $85 which consisted or an Entree, Main and Dessert (or a cocktail in replacement of the dishes).

We had spent $185 the night before at a shockingly bad dinner at The Bentley Restaurant and Claire’s kitchen was a standout in every department.

The entree of Steak Tartare came deconstructed with the elements finely positioned around the diced beef cubes. The waiter mixed them together along with the egg yolk to become a nicely balanced dish of richness and tanginess to match. It was perfect and the envy amongst other on the table. The three cheese souffle was light and rich and was the recommended dish by the waiter and the Dome of smoked salmon was perfectly accompanied by the crab and celeriac remoulade served with avocado dressing and brioche crouton.

The mains were a beef affair with Braised beef cheeks, red wine sauce; Beef tenderloin wrapped in prosciutto and Beef fillet, flambéed in cognac, with green pepper and cream sauce. All cooked to perfection in all the glory of classic French sauces that should not be understated here.

The desserts we chose the French pastry, a chocolate mousse, a crème brûlée. A perfect way to end the meal and all beautifully presented. They also wrote ‘Happy Birthday’ on the plate in French with beautiful hand writing along with a sparkler.

What must be highlighted is that although this was a fixed menu price, every dish that came was not reduced in size as other restaurants would. Each dish that arrived stood out on it’s own as if you had ordered it individually from the menu in terms of presentation and size.

The light hearted approach by staff made this French dining experience very warm and relaxed almost understating the excellent food that was made without compromise. We will definitely be back to one of the best quality and value French...

Absolute waste of our time… you don’t go to Oxford st to find French cuisine!! The greeting on arrival pretty much set the mood.. .it was raining and my husband saw umbrellas in a large vase at the entrance so he politely asked if we could add ours?? We were met with “oh make sure you are careful that is porcelain!” Okay, We were then offered by the waiter to sit anywhere despite having a booking.. which was a tick.. so we chose a table and sat down, then my husband asked the waiter to take a photo of us, as it was his birthday and we cherish moments together, the waiter said “no, you have to have food on the table” My husband usually does all the ordering and when it came time to order we were told “I had to order first” because I’m closest to the kitchen? ( I have worked in many fields including hospitality, never heard that before.) we obliged and ordered separately.. we got our food.. and we were underwhelmed!! We got the French onion soup, escargot, smoked salmon, duck pie and lamb.. it was all either cold, undercooked or just flavour less..After I had finished eating I neatly placed my napkin on my plate and the waiter yanked it off my plate and gave it back to me and told me “we don’t do that here” lol.. the rules we had to abide by were laughable and when my husband was told to eat his bread by dipping it in the sauce, it just felt demeaning.. We were wanting to leave before dessert or coffee. Please let your guests do what they want.. your food was average..all of it.. We would never go back!! If you have been to Paris.. go to Hubert’s in Sydney!! Amazing!

I have rated a one star for your establishment because unfortunately it is required in order to leave a review otherwise it would have been 0 and I have also given the gidley restaurant one star.(which we visited a year ago) I thank you for your condescending and dismissive attitude towards my honest critique as it clearly shows your lack of professionalism..rarely do I write a review unless I’m deeply unsatisfied and have the time to do so..may you also get the stars...